SHORT'S CAFE FIVE

African American sports pioneers Ray and George Crowe of Franklin, Indiana rank in the highest echelon of Indiana basketball royalty.

Location: Franklin, Indiana
Manager: Ray Crowe
Established:1941
Sponsor: Short’s Cafe

George was Indiana’s first “Mr. Basketball,” an honor he earned by a landslide popular vote in 1939 as a member of the Franklin High School Grizzly Cubs. He would go on to play pro basketball for the New York Renaissance before becoming a Major League Baseball star.

A blurb about the Short’s Cafe Five in an Indiana newspaper, 1941

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